NOVPUBJeon Mu-young’s eyes widened as he saw the distinctive color of the UR-tier item card’s border.
Hwang Ji-ho immediately recognized the elixir.
"Is that item from the Underworld?"
He looked at the item with a complicated expression, unsure whether it was because he didn’t expect me to bring it out here or for some other reason.
Though it was a highly valuable item, losing the unsa here would be much worse.
As I materialized the card, the bottle that appeared was plain and old, nothing like what one might expect from a UR-tier item.
The bottle, however, was heavy, filled with the life elixir.
‘First, let's extinguish the fire with the life elixir. I'll save the Life Herb for when the situation demands it.’
The life elixir, alongside the Life Herb, was said to have resurrected the high being Ishtar in ancient tales.
It seemed like the most appropriate item to save the unsa from the flames, but using both might be overkill.
Excessive medicine could turn into poison, so I had to use the items carefully.
"I’ll create a gap in the barrier. Use that opening to act."
Hwang Ji-ho moved the barrier as though he were manipulating a cube.
The barrier was so sturdy that creating a gap wide enough to pour the elixir was challenging.
Eventually, a hole the size of a fist appeared in the barrier.
Kwarrr!
A heat so intense it was hard to keep my eyes open burst out from the gap.
Hwang Ji-ho immediately created a small barrier to absorb the heat, but the air still felt hot.
Since he expanded the barrier all at once, I could see that Hwang Ji-ho was suffering from a headache, his brows furrowed.
But there was no stopping now.
‘It’s hard to reduce Hwang Ji-ho’s burden at this point.’
We had lost the four evil spirits, and we couldn’t afford to lose the unsa too.
Hwang Ji-ho surely understood this and was pouring his energy into it.
"I can block it as much as needed. Take your time."
I had to finish this quickly.
But I couldn’t rush, so I carefully examined the gap.
Small barriers were opening the way inside the brazier.
The flames were still intense, but if I dropped the life elixir, it would reach it.
Drip, drip.
As I tilted the bottle, the life elixir fell in a stream into the brazier.
Had it been ordinary water, such a small amount would have been immediately consumed by the flames, unnoticed.
But this was no ordinary water.
As the droplets of the life elixir soaked into the brazier, the intensity of the flames began to fade.
‘It’s working.’
When I had poured about half of the life elixir, the flames died down and turned into smoke.
As I continued pouring, even the smoke disappeared.
The life elixir was, quite literally, water that gives and saves life.
It erased the forces that were pushing the unsa toward death.
The fire in the brazier disappeared, and the surroundings grew relatively dark, but in contrast, the expressions of Hwang Ji-ho and Jeon Mu-young brightened.
As the flames faded, a silhouette covered in a thin cloud appeared.
Though it wasn’t entirely visible, it was clear it was extremely thin.
‘Despite the energy being absorbed by the brazier, it still had enough cloud to cover its body for minimal protection.’
Even so, compared to the clouds I had seen in the garden, it seemed much weaker, to the point of looking like a different true tribe.
The cloud was too sparse to fully cover the body.
The skin that appeared through the cloud was charred.
It seemed more like the remnants of something that had burned rather than fresh burns.
But even that charred skin had faint traces of energy flowing through it.
The unsa was attempting to regenerate with its own power.
"Unsa..."
Hwang Ji-ho, recognizing this, called out the name of his close friend.
As soon as Hwang Ji-ho called out, a faint vitality returned to the unsa’s energy.
Though unconscious, the unsa’s energy responded to Hwang Ji-ho’s voice.
To match the flow of energy, I tilted the bottle of life elixir further.
Paaah...
When the flames that had been threatening the unsa's life finally extinguished, the life elixir began healing him directly.
When the elixir touched the blackened skin, something beneath the dead tissue stirred.
Soon, fresh flesh began to grow, and the unsa flinched in reaction to the elixir.
‘At this rate, the life elixir alone should suffice. It seems to be restoring the body without affecting the energy circulation, but whether the unsa will open its eyes immediately is uncertain...’
Before long, the bottle of life elixir was empty.
When the last drop touched the unsa’s body, the burns disappeared completely.
Though still gaunt and seemingly asleep, the unsa had survived.
Paat! 𝓃𝓸𝓋𝓅𝓊𝒷.𝓬𝓸𝓂
I sealed the life elixir bottle back into a card.
Though it was an old bottle, its value was immense as it had once contained water that revived a god.
The rarity might have decreased, but the bottle that had held the life elixir returned as an item card.
After confirming that I had used up all the life elixir, Hwang Ji-ho spoke.
"I’ll handle the rest."
Hwang Ji-ho rearranged the small barriers inside the brazier.
The barriers shifted into sharp, blade-like forms, moving toward the link connecting the unsa and the brazier.
It seemed he was planning to sever all the connections at once, as golden blades were created for every link.
Before moving the blades, Hwang Ji-ho spoke.
"Once the connection is severed, prepare for immediate retreat. Please handle the retrieval of the brazier."
Hwang Ji-ho stopped abruptly.
It seemed he understood my intention in saying those words.
"...You’ve been focused on the unsa’s safety. Understood. I will take care of the unsa and the brazier. Everyone, please look after your own safety."
Although the mastermind chose the four evil spirits over the unsa, he wouldn’t let them go easily.
He must have considered the possibility that the noble faction might come to rescue the unsa.
Therefore, he must have prepared for the situation where the connection between the unsa and the brazier was severed.
Jeon Mu-young also understood the meaning of the conversation and nodded firmly, standing behind me.
It seemed he was ready to protect my back.
"We’re going."
Screech!
Hwang Ji-ho activated his barrier technique and severed the connection between the unsa and the brazier.
At the same time, he moved the barriers, enveloping the now separated unsa and brazier.
He handled the unsa’s side much more carefully, while the brazier was dealt with more roughly.
‘I’d rather not deal with it, but I have to retrieve it for analysis. I’m sure he knows this.’
The mastermind had taken a direct hand in the brazier, so we couldn’t just leave it.
Hwang Ji-ho quickly completed the series of tasks, and shortly afterward, the clouds inside the garden began to tremble.
"Still playing tricks until the end."
Paah!
Hwang Ji-ho created a golden path with his barrier technique.
He floated the unsa and brazier, wrapped in barriers, and led the way.
"The garden is collapsing. Everyone is in the process of retreating."
It seemed that if anyone touched the unsa, it would shake the garden, and once the unsa was completely separated from the brazier, the garden would collapse.
I followed behind Hwang Ji-ho, thinking of this as a trap the mastermind might have prepared.
As I struggled with my heavy steps, Jeon Mu-young assisted me.
It seemed like he was used to helping me, possibly from a situation where Seong Guk-eon had been severely injured during an interdimensional raid.
"I can manage this. Let’s go."
The garden was collapsing, so I couldn’t afford to be stubborn.
If I were Seong Guk-eon, I’d have easily laughed and accepted, saying, "Ha ha! Sorry, Mu-young."
I had mimicked Seong Guk-eon, but now I didn’t have the confidence to act like that.
What concerned me more than anything was:
‘Will the others be safe?’
I had brought many people into the garden with my plans.
Now that they were in danger, there was nothing I could do.
Though my heart was heavy, I wasn’t overly anxious.
It was because of Hwang Ji-ho.
‘He must have protected them. The fact that I couldn’t use my energy here proves that he was fighting elsewhere.’
Thanks to that thought, I could focus on the escape.
As we passed over the collapsing and warping clouds, I shifted my focus from worrying about others to considering what lay ahead.
Most of what lay ahead was tied to the unsa.
At last, we neared the exit of the garden.
"Enemies are visible near the exit. They seem to be going wild, sensing the garden’s destruction."
Jeon Mu-young said in a weary voice.
After experiencing the mastermind’s persistence and malice, it was understandable that he was tired.
Hwang Ji-ho spoke casually, perhaps because we were close to the exit.
"No need to worry."
Did that mean he was going to handle it?
There were quite a few enemies, but if Hwang Ji-ho stepped in, it should be fine.
I thought so, but then Hwang Ji-ho’s next words were different.
"At the boundary of the garden and reality, our allies are waiting. They said they will wait until you all arrive."
It seemed Hwang Ji-ho wasn’t planning to handle it all alone.
But did "allies" refer to the nobles?
Jeon Mu-young seemed to think the same and asked Hwang Ji-ho.
"Allies? You mean the nobles?"
"The nobles are waiting outside. None of the allies near the boundary are nobles. Well, since I have my clones, I suppose you could say there are nobles."
Hwang Ji-ho’s words were a bit ambiguous.
By now, we had almost reached the exit.
The enemies gathered there couldn’t get out.
Those standing in their way were our allies.
‘They were waiting here...?’
Teacher Ham Geun-hyeong’s arrows pierced the enemies’ vital points.
The enemies gathered from different gardens were all from different factions, but Teacher Ham had pinpointed each one’s vital spot and drew his bow.
Maeng Hyo-don, who seemed weakened, was supporting Tak Geosan instead of fighting directly.
Tak Geosan, who had learned of his disciple’s growth, was fighting with a beaming smile.
Luckily, no one was seriously injured.
"The exit will collapse soon. Is that alright?"
I heard the voice of Ju Su-hyeok.
He and Kim Cheol were also here.
Although I had heard from Hwang Ji-ho that Ju Su-hyeok had come, I still couldn’t believe he was here.
Those two were fighting near Hwang Ji-ho’s clone.
It seemed that Ju Su-hyeok’s group had joined Hwang Ji-ho’s clone from the garden.
Judging by the casual way Ju Su-hyeok spoke, it seemed like he had realized who the 20-year-old version of Hwang Ji-ho was.
‘Everyone here is going to find out who Hwang Ji-ho really is, aren’t they?’
I wasn’t sure how Teacher Ham Geun-hyeong or Tak Geosan would react, though.
Even though Tak Geosan had an honorary teaching position, I wasn’t sure how Teacher Ham would take it.
Ju Su-hyeok’s words were answered by one of Hwang Ji-ho’s clones near the exit.
"Of course. Everyone’s here."
Ju Su-hyeok then turned to Hwang Ji-ho’s back.
Following the path Hwang Ji-ho had cleared, and with Jeon Mu-young supporting me, Ju Su-hyeok’s gaze stopped at the spot where my left eye had once been.
After staring deeply, Ju Su-hyeok sighed.
"Ah..."
He wasn’t looking at me as a congressman or school senior.
He was looking at me with the concern of a friend.
Even though I was mimicking Seong Guk-eon, I realized immediately that something had happened.
‘Ju Su-hyeok recognized me.’
Ju Su-hyeok, with his excellent insight, had probably realized my identity and abilities.
His extraordinary insight had probably led him to recognize my true nature and intervene to stop the mastermind’s plan.
Perhaps it was Maeng Hyo-don’s incident that triggered Su-hyeok to use his abilities for his friend.
Kwahhhhh!
Ju Su-hyeok turned away from me and swung his swords.
His twin swords moved like the wings of a bird, slicing through the enemies.
With the wind attribute added to his two-winged swords using Gwanglim, a whirlwind swept through the place where the enemies had vanished.
"Let’s go out!"
Just then, Hwang Ji-ho completed the path.
We followed him and crossed the boundary into reality.
